Recently, I have come across many news articles where the Traffic Police officials have been quoted, saying that they have stepped up the action against traffic violators. Its a good sign for any city indeed. The kind of chaotic traffic, which Delhi NCR has been witnessing for last few years, a strict action from Traffic Police was indeed necessary. But one has to see that at what cost are we achieving this normalcy in traffic.
I am afraid but in last couple of months, the role of traffic police officials has been nothing short of pathetic. After having received a free hand from their seniors, the on ground traffic police personnel have gone berserk in stopping any and every vehicle at their will. This piece of writing is not only based on my personal experiences but also of some of my friends and relatives, with whom I have had detailed discussions. Here are some incidents, which after reading, you would be able to pick out at least one incident which has happened to you in last couple of months.
1. It was the day when merely a couple of hours of rain had halted the traffic completely in Delhi NCR. The government's laxity was visible in the pools of water which had accumulated in most roads. A friend of mine was stuck in the traffic jam, and decided to call home to tell his mother that he would be late. This is when a traffic police guy jumped out of nowhere and informed him that he just broke a traffic rule. My friend was completely shocked. The car was at a complete standstill on the middle of the road. Even though technically he might have been at a fault, but logically it was far from being a traffic violation. Even though there was such heavy chaos on the road, the traffic guy was more interested in making my friend realise his mistake. Result: A argument without any conclusion. My friend was willing to pay the fine, but the traffic police guy didn't have the Challan Book.
2. It was a saturday night. I was coming back from Delhi to Gurgaon. I was in the queue at the toll bridge waiting for my turn. This is when I saw that there were police guys probably checking for drunk drivers. I felt relieved that I was sober. The police guy walked up to me and I pulled down the window. He asked me where was I coming from, where was I heading to. What is his business. Anyways. I answered the questions. He asked me how many beers had I consumed. I said none. He said it was difficult to believe that a guy on a saturday night is not drunk. What logic? I told him that I wasnt drunk and they can have my breath analyser test done. He agreed and asked me to accompany him to the Thana. This is when I lost my head. I refused to accompany him to thana and asked for the test to be taken there and then. These guys were searching for drunk drivers without the breath analysing kit. After a heated discussion, he let me go. For him it was an opportunity to make a quick buck. But sadly enough for him, I wasnt the kind of catch he was looking for.
3. A friend of mine was driving back from work. A police official waved and stopped him. He slowed down and stopped after a few meters. He was surprised as to why he was stopped. He got out of the car and walked back towards the Traffic Police guy. The traffic police guy told him that he wasnt wearing his seat belt. He felt damn irritated because now there was no way he could prove that he was wearing the seat belt. He tried convincing the traffic guy, that he was indeed wearing the belt. The traffic guy asked for all his papers, which he politely showed. Then he asked for his mobile phone. My friend was a little hesitant but handed over his phone to him. He started checking the recent calls list to check if my friend was on the phone when he was caught. There were no calls in the last few minutes. Finally after the traffic guy was over with all the 'routine' check ups, my friend was told that he was free to go. He didn't even find the traffic guy worth arguing with and left that place.
I would like to clarify that I am not trying to look down upon the good work the Traffic Guys are doing, but some traffic police personnel see it as an opportunity to earn an easy buck. There is no reason why these guys should not be equipped with the Breath Analyser or the Challan Book. They know that many people end up paying cash to them as an escape measure. Also, the practice of traffic policemen stopping cars without any valid reason has gone up drastically. I have been stopped atleast 4-5 times in last one month, for no rhyme or reason. Maybe because I have a Rajasthan registration number, or maybe because they were hallucinating. The senior traffic police officials need to realise that the good work of most of the good on ground officials is undone by a small number of inefficient traffic guys who are doing nothing but holding the traffic for ransom...
Showing posts with label Gurgaon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gurgaon. Show all posts
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Bagle's Cafe Gurgaon: Disappointing
For a place which opened last month with good reviews all over the print media, my trip to Bagel Cafe, Gurgaon was nothing short of a disaster.Before visiting the place, I did a quick google search and visited the website (www.bagelscafe.in). The website offers a refreshing mix of colours and further raises your expectations from the place.
As soon as you enter the cafe, you feel a bit cheated. The ambience of the cafe is more like a CCD or a Barista and does not offer anything better than a routine neighbourhood cafe. The ambiance and the interiors do not do any justice to colourful logo,menu cards and the websiteThe staff did greet us with a happy smile initially, but alas, that happy feeling on their faces also begins to fade away in some time.
We ordered Plain Cream Cheese Bagel, Cafe Lattes and Country Style Stew with Chicken and Sausages. When you order a Cheese Bagel, you don't expect the cheese layer to be as thick as the Bagel itself. Well, We did find our way out by removing half the layer of the cheese, but the stale 'cream cheese' didn't do any good to us. It was just not edible.When we made the staff aware of the stale cheese, they simply handed us a feedback form and asked us to leave our comments.
The Chicken and Sausage Meal in the Bowl was at best average and could have been better, had it not been so bland and full of Cream Cheese. It seemed that the staff knew that their Cream Cheese was getting stale and wanted to exhaust the entire thing on that evening itself.Coffee also does not need any special mention. A specialised cafe like this can work harder on the aroma of the coffee.
I am being a bit too critical about Bagel's Cafe only because of the good reviews it had received during the week of its opening. One tends to question the integrity of the Food Reviewers which the major publication houses employ. To make the matters worse, the pricing is also not something to write home about.
Details:
Name: Bagel's Cafe
Location: Shopping Mall, Arjun Marg, DLF 1
Phone: 0124-4284742
Website: www.bagelscafe.in
Cost for 2 people: Rs 500-600
Verdict: Disappointing
P.S. I am glad that some of the Gurgaon people whom I follow on Twitter have a similar opinion of the place
As soon as you enter the cafe, you feel a bit cheated. The ambience of the cafe is more like a CCD or a Barista and does not offer anything better than a routine neighbourhood cafe. The ambiance and the interiors do not do any justice to colourful logo,menu cards and the websiteThe staff did greet us with a happy smile initially, but alas, that happy feeling on their faces also begins to fade away in some time.
We ordered Plain Cream Cheese Bagel, Cafe Lattes and Country Style Stew with Chicken and Sausages. When you order a Cheese Bagel, you don't expect the cheese layer to be as thick as the Bagel itself. Well, We did find our way out by removing half the layer of the cheese, but the stale 'cream cheese' didn't do any good to us. It was just not edible.When we made the staff aware of the stale cheese, they simply handed us a feedback form and asked us to leave our comments.
The Chicken and Sausage Meal in the Bowl was at best average and could have been better, had it not been so bland and full of Cream Cheese. It seemed that the staff knew that their Cream Cheese was getting stale and wanted to exhaust the entire thing on that evening itself.Coffee also does not need any special mention. A specialised cafe like this can work harder on the aroma of the coffee.
I am being a bit too critical about Bagel's Cafe only because of the good reviews it had received during the week of its opening. One tends to question the integrity of the Food Reviewers which the major publication houses employ. To make the matters worse, the pricing is also not something to write home about.
Details:
Name: Bagel's Cafe
Location: Shopping Mall, Arjun Marg, DLF 1
Phone: 0124-4284742
Website: www.bagelscafe.in
Cost for 2 people: Rs 500-600
Verdict: Disappointing
P.S. I am glad that some of the Gurgaon people whom I follow on Twitter have a similar opinion of the place
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The farce called development
As I write this, I can hear the various generators operating around my house here in Gurgaon. There has been no electricity here in last 12 hours and there are no chances of any reprieve either.
We talk about development in our country. Especially during the elections, most political parties want to attract attention of the middle class and upper middle class by warping about the development work which they have carried out or plan to carry out. For all other sections of society they have their tactics of regionalism, secularism and socialism. Gurgaon is soon turning into a financial hub of Northern India. A majority of its inhabitants are from the urban middle class. Gurgaon can boast of the maximum number of malls, sprawling office space and the soon to be launched Metros.
But the basic civic amenities are in the worst possible state here. There is no electricity for hours at a stretch. The roads are worse than those in villages. Every evening, the traffic jam is probably the worst of its kind and the law and order situation has plunged to a lowest possible level with murders and robberies taking place on almost daily basis.
I recently finished reading The White Tiger, in which Gurgaon was described as the closest possible replica of America in India. I hope that the author was only talking about costs of real estate and nothing else.
With elections in Gurgaon around the corner, I made an effort to look into the profiles of the incumbent MP and also the closest competitor. The present MP seems to have done nothing about the pathetic condition of the infrastructure in Gurgaon. Even though I am not too sure about the credentials of the his closest competitor, Dr. Sudha Yadav of BJP, but a quick google search tells me that the last time she was an MP, she made the best possible use of the MP fund for her constituency. These facts for sure can be misleading, but I will stick to the simple logic of not voting for the current MP because he seems to have done nothing for the 'millennium city' in last five years. Atleast it doesnt show. I guess this is what anti incumbency factor is all about.
I wonder, if cities like Gurgaon, which gets so much media attention is in such a bad state, with its local leaders doing nothing for it, what would be the conditions of the small villages and towns. Where is the Rs 2 crore per year MP fund going? Every year Rs 1150 crores is allocated to Lok Sabha MPs for development work in their constituencies...We need to know the where this money is going...RTI anyone??
We talk about development in our country. Especially during the elections, most political parties want to attract attention of the middle class and upper middle class by warping about the development work which they have carried out or plan to carry out. For all other sections of society they have their tactics of regionalism, secularism and socialism. Gurgaon is soon turning into a financial hub of Northern India. A majority of its inhabitants are from the urban middle class. Gurgaon can boast of the maximum number of malls, sprawling office space and the soon to be launched Metros.
But the basic civic amenities are in the worst possible state here. There is no electricity for hours at a stretch. The roads are worse than those in villages. Every evening, the traffic jam is probably the worst of its kind and the law and order situation has plunged to a lowest possible level with murders and robberies taking place on almost daily basis.
I recently finished reading The White Tiger, in which Gurgaon was described as the closest possible replica of America in India. I hope that the author was only talking about costs of real estate and nothing else.
With elections in Gurgaon around the corner, I made an effort to look into the profiles of the incumbent MP and also the closest competitor. The present MP seems to have done nothing about the pathetic condition of the infrastructure in Gurgaon. Even though I am not too sure about the credentials of the his closest competitor, Dr. Sudha Yadav of BJP, but a quick google search tells me that the last time she was an MP, she made the best possible use of the MP fund for her constituency. These facts for sure can be misleading, but I will stick to the simple logic of not voting for the current MP because he seems to have done nothing for the 'millennium city' in last five years. Atleast it doesnt show. I guess this is what anti incumbency factor is all about.
I wonder, if cities like Gurgaon, which gets so much media attention is in such a bad state, with its local leaders doing nothing for it, what would be the conditions of the small villages and towns. Where is the Rs 2 crore per year MP fund going? Every year Rs 1150 crores is allocated to Lok Sabha MPs for development work in their constituencies...We need to know the where this money is going...RTI anyone??
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